The Problem About Aggression

"Today, we are developing faster than ever. Our knowledge is growing exponentially and therefore our technologies. But as humans, we still have the instincts, especially the aggressive impulses that we had as a caveman. "

-- Stephen Hawking, the Physicist

It was a comment that he made today.  The central theme to his conversation is that it is an oversight of society to counter violence and aggression.....with violence and aggression while speaking toward the Paris attack.

How would one respond to aggression?

If you were talking to some PhD chemist who was holding a gun on five students and talking crazy.....there's this brief moment when the security guy or cop will give them a brief moment to reflect, use logical deduction, review all variables, judge the consequences, and then come to the best hypothesis of the end-result.

If you were talking to a business man who had a masters from Columbia University.....but is holding ten hostages at gunpoint in the central lab.....there would be this brief moment when the security guy or cop would put up a brief diagram of the various scenarios of success, the options of a positive or negative outcome, and then a brief pause to consider there is only way to end the mess.

If you were talking to an engineer with a degree with a real college (even a NCAA college)....holding a dozen people at gun-point.....the cops would go over the layout, potential breaking points, and weight variables of success....hoping that a logical outcome might occur.

But here's this odd thing.

When you hold an authority-figure, with possibly a fair amount of THC in their system, hyped up over non-science topics, obsessing over the lack of status among his prisoners and the prescribed sentence required from the year 640AD, and the lack of any intelligent conversation possible....then Professor Hawking's dynamic intellectural value is worthless.

The world needs brilliant men, rocket-scientists, worthy intellectuals and Einstein-like thinkers.  But we need them for the tasks they were educated to perform.  The world also needs some rough characters of the type who walk in the shadows and take on thugs with no values or morals.  In the end, we need them to lessen the violence and threats upon society.

In some ways I admire Doctor Hawking.  But in this case......he wasted a few moments of his thinking talents on something best left to others.